Born in Southport, Lancashire, the brother of painter Adrian Stokes and the engineer Sir Wilfred Stokes, he trained in London with a number of important architects, including G E Street, T E Colcutt and G F Bodley. From 1878, he studied at the RA
Schools, winning the Pugin Prize, 1880, which enabled him to complete his studies in Germany and Italy, 1881-2.

He was a noted church architect and designed colleges and houses. After marrying the daughter of the National Telephone Company's General Manager, he designed twenty telephone exchanges throughout the UK, including the Rose Street exchange, Edinburgh (1901-3) and one in Aberdeen (1908-9).

The former Western Telephone exchange at 24 Highburgh Road is his only building in Glasgow and was designed in collaboration with
Colin Menzies
in 1907.